Singer and One Million Star (超級星光大道) fan favorite Aska Yang (楊宗緯) pitched a fit on his blog after a reporter aska’ed him one too many questions about his relationship with a young male friend.
According to Yang’s blog, he was innocently out shopping in the East District (東區) when he “stepped in some dog shit,” ie, paparazzi. Prior to that, Yang had a fruitful day snapping up a sea-green OriginalFake hoodie, black corduroy shorts and a fancy cellphone strap. He was walking with two young friends of his, a man and woman, when all of the sudden a frenzy of flashbulbs started going off “like lightening from the sky.” Yang wrote that he would not hesitate to seek legal action should such a mishap occur again, adding ruefully, “I think I might have to return those shorts.”
(Pop Stop thinks he should also look into returning the entire outfit he had on that day: a shiny black bomber jacket and baggy cargo shorts.)
But according to our sister paper the Liberty Times’ (自由時報) version of the events, Yang threw a hissy fit when a reporter told him “readers are curious … you seem to be very close to that young man,” referring to Yang’s male friend. One can only imagine that this question was asked with a smarmy nudge and saucy lifting of the eyebrows, for the impromptu interview culminated in Yang screaming, “I will not answer your questions, all reporters do is write dirt!” Who can blame Yang for his outburst? But venting about it on his blog is a different matter. If Yang was famously too old to compete on One Million Star, then he is also way too old to be peevish.
Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) was happier to have reporters follow her on a recent shopping spree in New York City, where the songstress dropped northwards of NT$10,000 — on sugar-free candy. Tsai, visiting the Big Apple to film a commercial, dragged her entourage up and down and around 5th Avenue before she finally located her favorite specialty purveyor of the low-cal sweets. Once she found the store, the whippet-thin celeb gleefully posed for photos hoisting aloft a giant sack of gummi bears, the manic gleam in her eyes bearing testimony to years of calorie-deprivation.
United Daily News (聯合報) reported that this was the first time in years Tsai had eaten chocolate. She spent the rest of her trip abroad continuously stuffing her face from an ever-present sack of candy, the vernacular daily said. Having exhausted her supply, Tsai made sure to stop by the store again for refills before leaving New York. “Paris and London both have this kind of sugar-free candy,” she told United Daily, “But you can’t find gummi bears in London.”
Cecilia Chung (張柏芝) may need to take a page from Tsai’s book about calorie management. The Hong Kong actress and pop singer, whose friends have denied recent reports that she had suffered a miscarriage, was spotted by Sing Tao Daily News (星島日報) purchasing five cups of noodles, three cans of some unspecified foodstuff, two boxes of chocolates and three big bags of potato chips. Sing Tao Daily gallantly commented on her behind and tummy, which were both noticeably more voluptuous than they had been when they made their infamous appearance in the nude portraiture of renowned photographer (and erstwhile pop star) Edison Chen (陳冠希).
When asked if she were knocked up or just fat, Chung, shockingly enough, refused to answer. So Sing Tao Daily ran off and found a doctor who, based on grainy paparazzi photos, was willing to proclaim that there is a “good chance” Chung is indeed pregnant.
But Pop Stop thinks there is a much more plausible explanation. Chung was also recently spotted buying some computer games for husband Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒), who has apparently become something of a gaming geek recently. After the Chen sex photo scandal, the media frenzy over the possible miscarriage and the continuing pregnancy speculation, Chung and Tse may have decided to save their sanity by adopting the simple, quiet life of a couple of zhai nan (宅男), or homebodies.
If that is the case, Chung and Tse might want to look at the sad case of Chang Chen-huan (張振寰) before they become too reclusive. Chang was a sought-after television actor in Taiwan before alcoholism, mental illness and accusations of spousal abuse sent his career plummeting and relegated him to working menial jobs, including his latest one at a restaurant. Apple Daily (蘋果日報) reports that Chang’s lateness and odd behavior almost got him fired, but his boss was too softhearted in the end. Chang said he’d talk to her “about how I can improve.”
The Taipei Times last week reported that the rising share of seniors in the population is reshaping the nation’s housing markets. According to data from the Ministry of the Interior, about 850,000 residences were occupied by elderly people in the first quarter, including 655,000 that housed only one resident. H&B Realty chief researcher Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨), quoted in the article, said that there is rising demand for elderly-friendly housing, including units with elevators, barrier-free layouts and proximity to healthcare services. Hsu and others cited in the article highlighted the changing family residential dynamics, as children no longer live with parents,
It is jarring how differently Taiwan’s politics is portrayed in the international press compared to the local Chinese-language press. Viewed from abroad, Taiwan is seen as a geopolitical hotspot, or “The Most Dangerous Place on Earth,” as the Economist once blazoned across their cover. Meanwhile, tasked with facing down those existential threats, Taiwan’s leaders are dying their hair pink. These include former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), among others. They are demonstrating what big fans they are of South Korean K-pop sensations Blackpink ahead of their concerts this weekend in Kaohsiung.
Taiwan is one of the world’s greatest per-capita consumers of seafood. Whereas the average human is thought to eat around 20kg of seafood per year, each Taiwanese gets through 27kg to 35kg of ocean delicacies annually, depending on which source you find most credible. Given the ubiquity of dishes like oyster omelet (蚵仔煎) and milkfish soup (虱目魚湯), the higher estimate may well be correct. By global standards, let alone local consumption patterns, I’m not much of a seafood fan. It’s not just a matter of taste, although that’s part of it. What I’ve read about the environmental impact of the
Oct 20 to Oct 26 After a day of fighting, the Japanese Army’s Second Division was resting when a curious delegation of two Scotsmen and 19 Taiwanese approached their camp. It was Oct. 20, 1895, and the troops had reached Taiye Village (太爺庄) in today’s Hunei District (湖內), Kaohsiung, just 10km away from their final target of Tainan. Led by Presbyterian missionaries Thomas Barclay and Duncan Ferguson, the group informed the Japanese that resistance leader Liu Yung-fu (劉永福) had fled to China the previous night, leaving his Black Flag Army fighters behind and the city in chaos. On behalf of the
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